Another Panel

I was so intrigued by the results of Thomas the Train panel that I just HAD to try another one.

On Sunday I got another panel and flannel backing, so I will be ready for the weekend to get that one quilted also.

This one is a soft yellow, blue and brown panel of baby jungle animals, a baby lion and tiger and elephant, and it's perfect for a shower gift where the gender of the child is unknown. I love it! This will be one of my portfolio pieces, so I can show off a simple, large meandering pattern. This time, I will use Warm and Natural cotton batting, so I can also show the texture and density.

Darn, I should have gotten 2 of them, and done one in polyester so I can show off the difference. Hope there's another sale soon!

Pass the Bag - Star blocks

My sub group did a Pass The Bag project last year, and I was too busy to participate.  Every month I felt left out because I really liked what I saw developing.

This year, we decided on a star block.  It only requires 2 contrasting fat quarters to get 2 large and 2 small blocks.  The pattern was drawn onto freezer paper, then ironed onto the top piece of fabric, then cut apart...no seam allowances.

I decided that I was definitely going to participate this year.  I chose batiks for my own project, and put a note in the bag asking that I get the left over fabric from the fat quarters.  I always want a larger quilt, so not only will the leftovers help with increasing the size, they will provide a place of rest for the eye and/or a really great border.

It's only the first round so far, so yesterday I worked on the next blocks, blue and gold.  I am also making more batik blocks for my own project so that I will get the larger quilt I want.

Here are the finished small blocks:

And here are the larger blocks, ready to sew:

We are not supposed to trim the blocks, so that the recipient can decide how to place them and what size to trim them down to.

I think it's going to be great fun to see what everyone comes up with.  Now, how am I going to quilt this....??

New Quilter's perspective

I've been asked to write an article for our local guild's newsletter about my perspective as a new long arm quilter.  What an honor!  And, what pressure!

What is the voice?  What about grammar?  Will it be interesting to anyone?  I haven't written a "paper" for quite awhile, will it be any good??

Guess it's sorta like quilting...you just gotta go for it. ;-)

Thomas the Train

I finally finished one of the baby quilts I had signed up to quilt for the Boise Basin Quilters baby quilt project.  I am really pleased with how it turned out, especially since this is the first time I've done meandering on my longarm. 

 

 

 

The quilt measures 34 x 43 and I used a size 16 needle with a variegated red, blue, green and yellow cotton thread.

 

 

 

 

 

Polyester batting makes it nice and puffy.

 

 

 

 

 

Flannel Thomas the Train backing.

Ricky Tims on CBS Sunday Morning

I first saw this on The Quilt Show's website.  It is a great insight into why quilting is not gender specific....and is so addictive!

 

Watch CBS Videos Online

Great weekend!

I got so much done! First of all, I am almost finished with getting my tax information ready to give to the accountant (I know, I should have all the way finished that, but the QOV quilt was calling!)

I had a friend over and we had planned to go to one of the area yarn shops, as I haven't completely converted her to quilting yet. We didn't even leave the house after lunch! We ended up petting Rosie and Gizmo, who were quite excited about getting a visitor, petting fabric, loading a baby quilt for the guild charity, as she wanted to see how my toy worked, and generally having a grand time. We even joined her and her companion for dinner and a movie, which we never do! We saw Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino; it was quite good, very thought provoking and intense.

Since I only need to add borders to the Turning Twenty quilt that I started in Montana, yesterday I started a Quilt's of Valor quilt.

It's been on my mind to do this for awhile, and I had started collecting some fabrics that I thought would be suitable.

I met an Army chaplain on the plane to Hawaii last year, and he told me that making them longer and heavier is a good idea for any of the ones going to the war zone itself, as it's so darn cold there in the winter. There's also a need to have some "generic" quilts, where they're not all red, white and blue. I have a bunch of 5" plaid squares that I got at last year's guild Yard Sale and I started putting them together with the dark blues I had been collecting, and added some lighter blues in and I suddenly was putting together a scrappy nine patch. I got 7 blocks done, and the makings of quite a few more started, in about 3 hours!

I started to run out of the plaids, so instead of making it 4 across, I rearranged to 3 across. At 42" it seems small to me still, and not yet at the minimum requirement of 50", but getting a quilt to be larger has never been a problem for me! Except for trying to make it more generic, I'm thinking of adding a narrow maroon border around all of it, and then adding a scrappy dark blue border to that. I've already got the maroon flannel that will go on the back; I love flannel backed quilts.